Introducing John Palmer

Welcome to How to Brew – the definitive book on making quality beers at home. Whether you want simple, sure-fire instructions for making your first beer, or you’re a seasoned home brewer working with all-grain, this book has something for you. How to Brew covers the full range of brewing possibilities – accurately, clearly, and simply. After years of research and refinement, I am happy to present this comprehensive home brewing book to readers online, in its entirety.

How to Brew (1st Edition) is free. You are free to enter, read it in its entirety, and print pages for your personal use.

Let me hear from you! If you have brewing questions or suggestions for the site, send them to john@howtobrew.com

There are many good books on homebrewing currently available, so why did I write one you ask? The answer is: a matter of perspective. When I began learning how to brew my own beer several years ago, I read every book I could find; books often published 15 years apart. It was evident to me that the state of the art had matured a bit. Where one book would recommend using baking yeast and covering the fermenting beer with a towel, a later book would insist on brewing yeast and perhaps an airlock. So, I felt that another point of view, laying out the hows and whys of the brewing processes, might help more new brewers get a better start.

Here is a synopsis of the brewing process:

Malted barley is soaked in hot water to release the malt sugars.
The malt sugar solution is boiled with Hops for seasoning.
The solution is cooled and yeast is added to begin fermentation.
The yeast ferments the sugars, releasing CO2 and ethyl alcohol.
When the main fermentation is complete, the beer is bottled with a little bit of added sugar to provide the carbonation.

Sounds fairly simple doesn’t it? It is, but as you read this book you will realize the incredible amount of information that I glossed over with those five steps. The first step alone can fill an entire book, several in fact. But brewing is easy. And it’s fun. Brewing is an art as well as a science. Some people may be put off by the technical side of things, but this is a science that you can taste. The science is what allows everyone to become the artist. Learning about the processes of beer making will let you better apply them as an artist. As my history teacher used to chide me, “It’s only boring until you learn something about it. Knowledge makes things interesting.”

As an engineer, I was intrigued with the process of beermaking. I wanted to know what each step was supposed to be doing so I could understand how to better accomplish them. For instance, adding the yeast to the beer wort: the emphasis was to get the yeast fermenting as soon as possible to prevent unwanted competing yeasts or microbes from getting a foothold. There are actually several factors that influence yeast propagation, not all of which were explained in any one book. This kind of editing was an effort by the authors to present the information that they felt was most important to overall success and enjoyment of the hobby. Each of us has a different perspective.

A brief review of one of his books.

“This is the introduction to brewing guide, it’s both detailed and readable.”